CD LINER NOTES
ALBIE DONNELLY IN CONVERSATION WITH BOB HARDY
BOB
You got your first major recording contract with Virgin Records in
1976. How many albums did you make with them, and could you say something
about them?
ALBIE
We made three albums. The first one was called ‘Local LADS Make
Good’, which Virgin distributed as ‘Local BOYS Make Good’!
As a result of this cock-up, many people who tried to order the album
using its correct title were told that it didn’t exist! ……
Then, they called our first single, which many people in the business
thought was going to be a hit and which used the vocal hook, “Get
down boogie”… They called it, ‘Who Needs The White
Man, Who Needs The Black Man’! … In my opinion this crap
title was the main reason why it only got to number 68 in the charts.
This first album was also released in the USA, but under the title
‘Supercharge’. It had no photo on the front cover, because
Virgin wanted the public their to think that we were a black band!
I didn’t see any problem with saying we were a white band …
because we were! I have no idea why they thought all this was such
a good idea, but I suppose it had something to do with the fact that
it was Virgin, and the label was run by a bunch of hippies with some
very strange ideas.
The next album, which musically I believe was the best, was called
‘Horizontal Refreshment’. This one didn’t sell as
well as the first one because it wasn’t as pop based. ….
The release of this second album also coincided with the punk revolution,
which basically fucked everything up, and also finished of all music
for the time being - because in the business of popular music you
can’t compete with a guy who has green hair, yellow teeth, and
is screaming his head off to his latest composition – a thing
called ‘Fuck The Queen’, or something like that. The pop
media in general prefer that sort of thing to any musical endeavour.
…. So, “That”, as they say, “was the end of
that”!
BOB
What about the third album?
ALBIE
The third album was the strangest of the three. It was called ‘Body
Rhythm’…. By this time Virgin had completely deconstructed
‘Supercharge’, and I was the only one left. The material
on this album was all written and sung by the (now very famous) record
producer, Mutt Lange (who also produced our other two albums) …..
One of these songs became Huey Lewis and the News’ first hit
in 1982 - a thing called ‘Do You Believe In Love’ …
It's identical to the ‘Supercharge’ version - only Huey
Lewis is singing it, and not Mutt!
BOB
Had you become completely disenchanted with Virgin by this time?
ALBIE
I had totally lost interest in making records, mainly because it had
occurred to me that ‘Supercharge’ owed so much money to
Virgin that the band was never going to make any. … Before we
joined up with Virgin, I had borrowed some money from my brother-in-law,
the circus owner Baron Allday, in order to finance the band. ….
And as a result, ‘Supercharge’ owned a complete PA system,
a Mercedes truck, and we were earning relatively good money for a
live band…. At the end of three years with Virgin we had no
PA, no truck, no money, and I owed them £100,000. We had also
spent a great deal of time with a ‘green’ record producer
from South Africa by the name of Mutt Lange, who had taken the band
in completely the wrong direction, and had then ended up being the
band’s singer who wrote all the songs and sang all the material!
When Richard Branson told me that I owed him £100,000, I replied,
“Well I didn’t spend it, … You did!” Having
said that, he was always very nice to me, and I’m glad to see
that he’s finally doing what he should have done in the first
place, which is messing round with trains, planes, and hot-air balloons.
Don’t ever forget that this is the man who gave us ‘Tubular
Bells’- which proves that he knows absolutely nothing about
music!
BOB
What did you do then?
ALBIE
I got another bunch of musicians together. But as you well know, musicians
are notorious for not investing in themselves; they won’t pay
for anything, or do anything. So I had to raise some money again to
start over. … This included getting a second mortgage.
BOB
By the early eighties you had reformed ‘Supercharge’,
and were touring again. I believe it would be right to say that once
again you felt that you were ‘on track’. . .. And you
made a couple of studio albums during this time didn’t you?
ALBIE
Yes. But of course as usual, they were plagued with all sorts stupid
problems, which were none of my making.
BOB
Can you elaborate?
ALBIE
Well these albums were not really aimed at the commercial market;
they were more an example of what we were all into at that particular
time. The first one, called ‘Now Jump,’ was soul/ska orientated,
and the second, ‘Kingsize’, was more rhythm and blues.
BOB
You started to work a great deal in Germany during this period. Can
you tell me something about this?
ALBIE
I had decided that the best thing to do was to take over the management
of ‘Supercharge’ again … I then contacted a number
of people in the business that I knew, and consequently began working
again both in the UK and on the continent
It was relatively easy to do this because all the musicians I recruited
into this particular version of ‘Supercharge’ just wanted
to play music and have a good time. I remember one particular tour
of Holland that we did when I actually got the money ten days as an
advance - which amounted to £35! … And so we went to Holland
for ten days with no money … You won’t find many musicians
prepared to do this … But we all knew that we could survive
on free beer! ...
Up to this point ‘Supercharge’ had never really had strong
management … But when we were playing in Germany, we met up
with this German guy, ‘Memo’ Rhein’, and he was
as crazy as we were! Before meeting up with us he had managed a band
called ‘The Spider Murphy Gang’, who went on to fame and
fortune. They were typical jolly Bavarian rock and roll boys.
Memo took ‘Supercharge’ on because I think he believed
the band would really work. And that’s what we did – we
really worked! We were doing 250 gigs a year … But unfortunately
while we did good clubs, big festivals, and TV shows, we never really
got over to the record companies …. Because they saw us as this
thing called a ‘Live Band’!
BOB
Yes! I remember when I was working in the band during 1984 and 1985,
we did hundreds of gigs, loads of festivals, and plenty of TVs. Memo
was a genius at getting work. We even cut an album – ‘Live
at Tina Onasis’s Wedding’.
ALBIE
That’s right. But we had become this strange thing called a
‘Live Band’ .. Maybe it would have been better to be a
‘Dead Band’!
BOB
It was during the early eighties that you recorded two studio albums.
The first, called ‘Now Jump’, was for Criminal Records,
and the second, ‘Kingsize’, for a publishing house in
London called Pan International - which was then leased to Intercord.
I understand the story surrounding these two sessions was rather bizarre.
Could you tell me a little about them?
ALBIE
The record company involved was called ‘Criminal Records’,
which had the slogan ‘The label you can’t trust’,
and this turned out to be true! … When they sent a cheque as
an advance for the first album, it bounced! … Then they sent
me another one, and that bounced! …. This involved me phoning
the guy involved, an explaining that if I didn’t get the money
by the next week I would kill him. He told me he had the money there
and then on his desk, so I jumped on the next train to London and
was there about three hours later…. I phoned him from the station
and said that if the money wasn’t there when I arrived at his
office, I would throw him down the stairs. … I walked through
the door, and there was the money! … I immediately shook his
hand and hugged him, and we went to the pub.
Regarding the second album … Criminal Records had received a
lump advance from Intercord to cover the recordings of several bands,
and when it came to our turn they had used it all this money up …
They were skint! … So there was no cash to make our second album!
… And Intercord just didn’t want to know about putting
up any more . … So I arranged for a publishing house in London
called Pan International to come up with some cash. … We recorded
‘Kingsize’ and then leased it to Intercord. Needless to
say, I have never seen a penny in royalties from either of these recordings!
BOB
The band at that time, what was it like?
ALBIE
Good! … There were a few decent writers in the band during this
time, so it was never a problem to find material for an album. ….
There was also one very special chum for me in this version of ‘Supercharge’,
and that was the drummer, Dave Hornbrey . … He could really
play our music! ….
The material on both these albums is representative of what I wanted
‘Supercharge’ to do at the time - which was move back
to a more soul and rhythm and blues influenced format.
FOR MORE INFORMATION – SEE SUPERCHARGE, THE EARLY 80’S
- VOLUME II
Bob Hardy has an MA in Popular Music Studies from
the Institute of Popular Music at Liverpool University, and is currently
working on a book about the music scene in Liverpool, ‘Speak
For Yourself!’. He played keyboards with ‘Supercharge’
during 1984 and part of 1985, and appears on the album ‘‘Groovers
In Paris’ - Supercharge Live At Tina Onasis’s Wedding’.
He formed JJ Records in 1988.
